Introduction
After the Civil War, the United States’ entered the Gilded Age when it became the richest and most industrialized nation on earth(Screws,110-112 ). America’s industrialized society during this period was characterized by mechanization, rapid urbanization as people left their farms in search of jobs in factories, the breakdown of the family unit as parents as well as children joined the workforce, and technology dictated the daily lives of people(Crossman, “Overview of Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft in Sociology”).
Group of Florida migrants on their way to Cranbury, New Jersey to pick potatoes, near Shawboro, North Carolina, July 1940.
During Gemeinschaft, there was strong social cohesion in pre-industrial societies because people shared the same values and culture (Crossman, “Overview of Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft in Sociology”). During Gesellschaft, there is weak social cohesion as people in industrial societies are competing for resources. While social cohesion in pre-industrial American society was driven by a sense of moral obligation to others, in the Gilded Age, society was structured around notions of efficiency. Membership in industrial society was therefore predicated on agreeing to obey its norms, and practices. Hence social ties were rational in nature by mutual consent and absent of any moral obligations (Crossman, “Overview of Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft in Sociology”). Economically, the Gilded Age brought about the decline of agriculture and cottage industries as manual labor became replaced by machine labor.
In a post-industrial society, technology, information, and services are more important than manufacturing actual goods (Crossman, “Post-Industrial Society in Sociology”). Data from the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reveals that America is currently in the post-industrial stage. While the unemployment rates for university graduates is 1.9%, people with no high school diploma have an unemployment rate of 5.7% (Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Employment status of the civilian noninstitutional population by age, sex, and race”). Furthermore, over a period of 25 years, America’s blue-collar workforce has dropped from 26 % to 15% as of the year 2019(Crossman, “Post-Industrial Society in Sociology”).
The transition of American society into the post-Industrial stage has meant that specific demographics in its labor force that could access blue-collar work are disproportionately impacted by unemployment. The 20-24 years old demographic is the least employed (BLS, “Employment status of the civilian noninstitutional population by age, sex, and race"). Approximately 6.7% of them are unemployed with Black men in this age bracket disproportionately unemployed (13.8%) compared to their White peers (6.5%). Likewise, White women in this age demographic suffer fewer unemployment rates (4.9%) compared to Black women (9.3%).
It is expensive and impractical to count every unemployed individual every month (Bureau of Labor Statistics, “How the Government Measures Unemployment”). Unemployment figures in America are calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) using a monthly survey. The target sample is usually made up of 60,000 households. Respondents are classified as "unemployed" when they lack a job but they are were actively looking for one during the 4 weeks before participating in the survey. This method of calculating unemployment has been criticized as being inaccurate because it excludes underemployment rates (Hederman, "What is Unemployment?").
Underemployment calculates how well an economy is using its labor force (Chen, “Underemployment”). A worker is underemployed when they are employed but their job does not make full use of their skills or capabilities. Examples include highly skilled workers stuck in low paying or low skill jobs, and part-time workers (Chen, “Underemployment”). Consequently, even though the official national unemployment rates from the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics is an inaccurate picture of the levels of unemployment in the country.
Sociology has a basic assumption that social circumstances shape personal opinions and human behavior (Blackburn,20-22). The state of unemployment has serious consequences for social stability forcing sociologists to examine its social consequences (McClelland and Macdonald, “The social consequences of unemployment”). Social exclusion arising out of unemployment has serious implications for social stability (Pohlan,296-299). The subject has become an area of study for sociologists through the functionalist, conflict, and symbolic interactionist lenses.
Functionalism is the way social order is achieved (Crossman, “Understanding Functionalist Theory”). It assumes that society is made up of different social institutions in a symbiotic relationship. These social institutions are family, economy, government, mass media, education, and religion (Crossman, “Understanding Functionalist Theory”). Social functionalists view unemployment as a problem caused by the collective failures of social institutions (Jakimovski,74). It needs to be addressed because it leads to societal instability manifested as an increase in crime rates.
Conflict theorists see unemployment as caused by the greed of the rich and powerful (Kendall,25). For instance, blue-collar jobs have been outsourced by American corporations to overseas destinations to secure more profits at the expense of the American worker. Conflict theorists view employment as a tool for empowering individuals to be completely autonomous. Thus, unemployment is the loss of this power. Consequently, it must be addressed to decrease social stratification.
To symbolic interactionists, every society recognizes the value of symbols. Even though societies give meaning to these symbols, their members are still free to attach different meanings to these social symbols (Kendell, p. 27). Some see the unemployed as “lazy” people who want to live off government assistance rather than put in an honest day’s work. Others see unemployment as evidence that the influx of economic migrants has closed off opportunities for native-born citizens to get work. Likewise, unemployment may be interpreted as evidence of government imposing heavy taxes on companies that are then forced to reduce their labor force to stay operational.
All three sociological approaches to examining the social cost agree that unemployment causes social instability manifested as an increase in crime, single-mother households, divorce rates, and weak social bonds (anomie). A possible solution for a society to mitigate the social costs of unemployment is to change existing socio-cultural norms so that social institutions are created that can cope with the instability that comes with job losses.
Conclusions
After the Civil War, the United States’ entered the Gilded Age when it became the richest and most industrialized nation on earth. America’s industrialized society during this period was characterized by mechanization, rapid urbanization as people left their farms in search of jobs in factories, the breakdown of the family unit as parents as well as children joined the workforce, and technology dictated the daily lives of people.
Data from the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reveals that America is currently in the post-industrial stage. While the unemployment rates for university graduates is 1.9%, people with no high school diploma have an unemployment rate of 5.7%. Furthermore, over a period of 25 years, America’s blue-collar workforce has dropped from 26 % to 15% as of the year 2019. Hence a post-industrial society is characterized by technology, information, and services being more important than manufacturing actual goods.
Unemployment is a phenomenon studied by sociologists because it harms social cohesion. A solution to addressing the instability that unemployment causes are changing social norms and culture to facilitate the creation of new social structures better adapted to cope with the social costs of unemployment.
